Bright future ahead for luxury properties

The future rental and sales of luxury properties in Barbados is looking positive.

At least for Eoin Sullivan, general manager of Unna Luxury Resorts And Residences –– operators of the upscale West Coast properties Port Ferdinand and St. Peter’s Bay –– who said he was optimistic about the future of the island’s tourism product.

Sullivan told Barbados TODAY, however, this wind of change could only come through promotion of the island and unity of key industry players.

He made the comments during the recent Gimme 5 And Fly symposium at the Concorde Experience, where a number of British travel agents familiarized themselves with a number of players in the local tourism industry.

General manager of Unna Luxury Resorts And Residences Eoin Sullivan.

“As an island destination everybody needs to work together to try and bring these initiatives to try and support each other –– Government, tourist authority and the private industry –– and move forward. But we are very positive about what we are looking for in terms of the future,” he said.

“I would say we are very positive about the future. I think there is a lot of change coming. The economy worldwide is beginning to improve. That will have a knock-on effect on Barbados. It is about promotion, energy, enthusiasm and working together. So people that are motivated to continue to develop the Barbados [product], which I believe all our people are, can only bring good news for the future,” added Sullivan.

In fact, Sullivan said from his viewpoint there had already been some very positive signs in the industry.

“We could tell you specifically that within the last six months the level of investment coming into Barbados in terms of real estate and owning properties has grown significantly. So that gives us great hope for the future,” he added.

He said Unna was in a unique position in that it had two properties to offer.

“While we have St. Peter’s Bay which is an existing luxury product, we are about to bring Port Ferdinand to market and the UK will be a very important part of that in terms of our own sales and marketing strategy,” he said.

Ownership of St. Peter’s Bay properties is about 60 per cent mixture of European and British residents.

He expected a similar profile for Port Ferdinand, which he said was expected to be open for the coming winter season.

“So while Port Ferdinand isn’t open yet, it will be for the coming winter season. So this is the work that we are dong now in advance to make sure that our contracts and relationships are set up and ready to go when we get the doors opened,” he said, referring to the Gimme 5 And Fly familiarization session.

He pointed out, however, that there might be a little more United States and Canada influence on Port Ferdinand “down the line” due to the company’s new marketing strategy, as well as increased airlifts out of those markets to Barbados.

“Thankfully, the good news being there is increased airlift coming out of Canada and the US, which we will obviously work with the tourist board on trying to promote and develop those routes as well,” said Sullivan.

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